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Murphy lists terms for toll road in city Sound barriers, parks, art among demands Thursday, November 29, 2001 By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Mayor Tom Murphy wants the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to meet new conditions -- some unique in highway construction -- to bring the Mon-Fayette Expressway into Pittsburgh.
They include special sound barriers, concrete formed and colored to look like sandstone blocks, riverfront parks and trails, underpasses serving as river portals, public art and a landscaped promenade along a tunnel-like stretch through Hazelwood.
Murphy and his aides wouldn't reveal what action they would take if the conditions aren't met.
"We will not speculate," Murphy spokesman Craig Kwiecinski said yesterday. "The conditions reflect what residents recommended through a series of community meetings" if the expressway is to be built, although most opposed the road.
More meetings, yet unscheduled, are to be held next month in affected neighborhoods to lay out the mayor's 31-page document, "Proposed Development and Design Guidelines for the Mon-Fayette Expressway." A draft copy was obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The document recommends that the turnpike commission delay property acquisition until an estimated $1.2 billion in construction funds is in place for the 24-mile section of highway from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills. That road is to divide north of the city of Duquesne, with one leg veering west to Pittsburgh and the other going northeast to Monroeville. The two legs would also serve as a Squirrel Hill Tunnel bypass.
Murphy's document didn't estimate costs of the suggested changes.
Turnpike commission officials were quick to note that the mayor didn't say "no" to the project, the most expensive in state history, or to the proposed alignment, which runs along the north shore of the Monongahela River.
"While we may have some differences of opinion, we interpret it as an opportunity to work with him," said Frank Kempf, the turnpike commission's chief engineer.
In a letter to Kempf, Murphy wrote: "Our goal, as I am sure is yours, is to create a transportation investment that contributes to the vitality of the city and the future of southwestern Pennsylvania."
Some 4.5 miles of the expressway would be within city limits. But Murphy has never fully embraced the idea of a limited-access highway.
Murphy's views are colored by his experience as a state legislator representing the North Side when Interstate 279 was built after decades of indecision and controversy and thousands of property acquisitions and relocations.
Among the mayor's conditions for supporting the Mon-Fayette project are:
Turnpike commission officials are about three months from submitting a six-volume draft environmental impact study of the northern section of road.
Pittsburgh assistant planning director Patrick Hassett said the city and its design consultant, LaQuatra Bonci Associates, will continue revising the report.
Hassett said city officials "heard loud and clear" at last month's meetings that most city residents oppose the expressway.
Kempf said the turnpike commission needs to proceed with preliminary alignment and environmental work to keep on track for public hearings, agency reviews and Federal Highway Administration approval by 2003.
"Some of the issues raised by the city are final design issues" that can be solved after the federal government acts, Kempf said. "There are some things we can't do under law. Those are problematic."
For instance, the commission would not be permitted to use federal funds to acquire property not needed for actual highway construction, making it difficult to meet Murphy's suggestion to relocate people with respiratory illness.
Fifty-three miles of the expressway in southern Allegheny and Washington and Fayette counties are open, under construction or in final design. The highway follows the Monongahela River corridor to Interstate 68 in West Virginia.
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Neighborhood review teams that would select their own consultants and an administrator to "review, revise and approve" toll road designs. Murphy wants the teams to have decision-making power, be funded by the turnpike commission and operate under the city's control and oversight.